Chapter 15: World War II in the Philippines - Chris Pforr Homepage

Chapter 15: World War II in the Philippines
Japanese Invasion 1941-1942
Ch 15, pg 1
Pearl Harbor Attack
On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The air attack by 353 carrier-launched planes sank four American battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers
and a minesweeper, and destroyed 188 airplanes. The attack killed 2,402 American troops and wounded 1,282
more. World War II had begun for the United States.
Attack on the Philippines
The Japanese next readied another fleet of bombers on their island colony of Taiwan to attack the Philippines.
There were large American air bases north of Manila:
* At Clark Field in Pampanga there were thirty-six United States P-40 fighters and seventeen B-17 bombers.
* At Iba Field in Zambales there were sixteen more P-40s.
The U.S. military in the Philippines was notified
of the attack on Pearl Harbor and had ten hours
warning before the Japanese attacked.
Nevertheless, when Japanese bombers arrived,
planes at Clark Field and Iba field were sitting
on the ground. Within minutes, most of the
United States Far East Air Force was destroyed.
After he was informed of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
General Douglas MacArthur remained incommunicado in his
suite at the Manila Hotel and issued no orders for seven hours.
He failed to mobilize his air forces to prevent their destruction
by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force.

Japanese Invasion Begins
Ch 15, pg 2
Following the air attacks on Luzon, there was a lull for two
weeks. Then on December 22, an invading force of 43,000
Japanese soldiers landed at Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan.
They were met by a weak force of Filipino and American
soldiers.
Additional Japanese landings on Luzon Island at Aparri, Vigan, Lamon Bay and Legaspi bolstered the invasion
force with thousands of more soldiers. The Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma, had a
schedule to conquer Luzon in fifty days. General MacArthur appealed to Washington, D.C., for reinforcements.
Finally realizing that none were coming, he changed plans: instead of trying to defend the entire Philippines, he
would activate “War Plan Orange-3”, a pre-war plan to defend only the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island
(near Manila) in a delaying action.
Manila
On December 24, Manila was declared an open city to spare the city
and its residents from destruction.
The Japanese occupied Manila on January 2, 1942.
Bataan
American and Filipino troops fought holding actions against the Japanese
invaders while making a tactical retreat to the rugged Bataan
Peninsula, whose mountainous terrain made it easily defensible.
Altogether, 80,000 Filipino and American troops made it to Bataan,
where they immediately began to create defensive positions against
the looming Japanese attack.
However, there were very few supplies stockpiled on the peninsula
so it was clear that their ability to sustain a prolonged defensive campaign
would be very limited.

The Island Fortress of Corregidor
Ch 15, pg 3
Corregidor was one of four island forts which had been
constructed in Manila Bay to defend against attack.
On Christmas Eve 1941, General MacArthur sailed to Corregidor
Island along with the U.S. high commissioner Francis
Sayre, President Manuel Quezon, and Vice-President
Sergio Osmena.
Left behind in Manila was Secretary of Justice Jose Laurel,
who was sympathetic to the Japanese. Quezon was said
to have advised Laurel to “Keep your faith in America, no
matter what happens.”
MacArthur was reported to have warned Laurel not to
swear allegiance to Japan - “or else, when we come back,
we’ll shoot you.”
On Corregidor, President Quezon was disappointed about the failure of the
American government to send relief to the besieged Philippines. Upon learning that
the United States was prioritizing aid for Britain to defend against Nazi Germany,
Quezon was quoted as saying “How typically American, to writhe in anguish at the
fate of a distant cousin while a daughter is being raped in the back room.”
In February 1942, President Quezon left Corregidor on an American submarine,
with a plan to establish a government-in-exile in the U.S.
Before leaving, Quezon secretly gave MacArthur 500,000 dollars as recompense for his “magnificent defense”
of the archipelago. Quezon also reportedly slipped his signet ring onto MacArthur’s finger, saying “When they
find your body, I want them to know that you fought for my country.”
The next month, March 1942, MacArthur and his staff were evacuated from Corregidor on four
PT boats. First they went to Mindanao, then flew to Australia.
MacArthur was then appointed by President Roosevelt as the
new Supreme U.S. Army Chief for the Pacific.
Meanwhile, the Japanese invaders began battling their way south on the Bataan Peninsula, determined to drive
the defenders away and then to capture Corregidor at the south end.

The Battles of Bataan and Corregidor 1942
Battle of Bataan
Bataan Death March
The surrender was followed by the infamous Bataan Death
March, in which American and Filipino prisoners of war
were forced to march from the Bataan Peninsula to a prison
camp 105 kilometers to the north. It is estimated that as
many as 10,000 men died on the march as a result of
disease, malnutrition, exhaustion from lack of rest, and in
some cases, direct execution by their Japanese captors.
Battle of Corregidor
Ch 15, pg 4
From January to March 1942, in three months of hand-to-hand
combat, the battle of Bataan remained a deadlock. Although they
were better armed and better fed than the half-starved American
and Filipino soldiers, the Japanese were unable to dislodge them
from their defensive line across the peninsula.
On April 3 the Japanese began an all-out assault and within
a few days made a successful breakthrough of allied lines on
Bataan. On April 9, the 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers
surrendered. This was the single largest surrender of a military
force under U.S. command in American history.
Next the Japanese turned their attention to Corregidor.
The island was densely packed with fortifications and
defended by 15,000 American and Filipino soldiers.
In May 1942, thousands of Japanese soldiers crossed the
narrow channel from Bataan on landing craft and barges
for the final assault on Corregidor. Two days of fierce
battles followed, with hundreds of deaths on both sides.
Finally, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright surrendered the
Corregidor garrison.
The Imperial Japanese Army celebrated their victory:
they had completed their capture of the Philippines.

Japanese Occupation 1941-1945
Second Philippine Republic
The Commonwealth government that had been installed
by the United States, headed by Quezon and Osmeña, was
exiled to Washington, D.C.
However, most Filipino politicians were forced to stay
behind. The Japanese authorities decided to use them and
began by organizing a Council of State through which they
directed civil affairs. In 1943 the Japanese declared the
Philippines an independent republic, headed by President
José P. Laurel. He later claimed that he had considered it
his duty to try to mitigate the harsh effects of the Japanese
occupation and so help alleviate the suffering of the
Philippine people. Just as the Americans had done 40 years
before, the Japanese obtained the cooperation of the
majority of the elite. In reality, it was a puppet government,
completely controlled by the Japanese occupiers.
Guerrilla Resistance Against the Japanese
Chap 15, pg 5
The Japanese Empire occupied the Philippines during World War II.
The occupation was harsh, accompanied by atrocities and with large
numbers of Filipinos pressed into forced labor.
The Japanese occupation was opposed by underground resistance and
thousands of armed Filipino guerrilla fighters.
Many guerrilla units were organized by the U.S. Armed Forces of the Far East
(USAFFE); these were generally commanded by American officers who had
escaped the Japanese Army.
The largest guerrilla group, independent of the USAFFE, was the Hukbalahap
(Hukbo ng Bayan Laban Sa Mga Hapon = People’s Anti-Japanese Army.) By
1943 the “Huks” had 30,000 guerrillas and controlled much of Luzon. In their
zones of control they set up local governments and instituted land reforms,
dividing up the largest estates equally between the peasants. They not only
killed Japanese soldiers, but in some cases Filipino landlords.
Guerrilla harassment was so effective that by the end of the war, the Imperial
Japanese Army controlled only 12 of 48 provinces.

MacArthur Returns: Battle of the Philippines 1944-45
In 1944, after two years of successful military campaigns against the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean, the
Americans were ready to attack them in the Philippines. The fighting began with the Leyte invasion.
The Battle of Leyte
The Battle of Luzon
In January 1945 the Americans began the invasion of Luzon
with a huge landing at Lingayen Gulf. Japanese did not contest
the American landings at Lingayen with ground troops,
but instead sent waves of kamikaze suicide planes to attack
the invasion ships. They sank twenty-four U.S. ships and
damaged seventy others. The US Army then attacked to the
south across Central Luzon towards Bataan and Manila.
The Battle of Manila
Chap 15, pg 6
In October 1944 the American forces under General Douglas
MacArthur attacked the Japanese on Leyte Island.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, which happened shortly after the
landing of American troops, is considered by many as the
greatest naval battle of all time. The Japanese fleet was
destroyed.
Soon after landing, MacArthur gave a radio address broadcast
throughout the Philippines: “People of the Philippines, I have
returned… Rally to me! …The guidance of divine God points
the way. Follow in His name to Holy Grail of divine victory!”
The Americans attacked the Japanese in Manila in a one-month
battle. Manila was almost completely destroyed by the fighting,
which resulted in the deaths of 1,000 American and 12,000 Japanese
soldiers, and an estimated 100,000 Filipino civilians. This death toll
was comparable to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

End of the War 1945
Japanese Surrender
General Tomoyuki Yamashita was the commander of
Japanese troops in the Philippines during this period. He
commanded 262,000 troops and tried to defend against the
American invasion but was severely hampered by lack of
aircraft, ships and supplies.
He tried to save Manila from destruction by evacuating
his soldiers from the city before the American attack, but
another Japanese commander decided to defend the city.
Yamashita and his troops retreated from Manila to the
mountains of northern Luzon, and then used delaying
tactics to maintain his army in Ifugao Province. He finally
surrendered his army to the Americans on September 2,
1945, thus ending World War II in the Philippines.
Suppression of the Huks
After their landing, American forces undertook measures to suppress the Hukbalahap
guerrillas which had been fighting the Imperial Japanese Army during the war.
American military forces removed local Huk governments and imprisoned many
high-ranking members of the Philippine Communist Party.
New Presidents Look to the Future
In August 1944, President Manuel Quezon died while in exile in the U.S.
Vice-President Sergio Osmeña, also in the United States, became the new
Philippine President.
In April 1945, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt died.
Vice-President Harry Truman became the new American President.
Chap 15, pg 7
In May 1945, Presidents Truman and Osmeña signed a secret “preliminary statement” calling for the
“fullest and closest military cooperation” between the two nations after the war. The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
requested Subic Bay Naval Station, Clark Air Base and 36 additional sites for the U.S. Army and Navy. The
agreement specified no curbs on the size or locations of the U.S. troop deployments. The United States thus
signaled its intention to continue its military presence in the Philippines long after World War II ended.